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Even before a single vote was cast in today’s United Nations-organised election of a constituent assembly in East Timor, the local and international media had declared the result to be a foregone conclusion. Fretilin, the former independence front that has worked closely with the UN administration since Indonesia’s withdrawal from the territory two years ago, was “expected to sweep to power” according to media reports.

An extraordinary standoff is underway in the seas off Christmas Island, an Australian outpost in the Indian Ocean. Yesterday a squad of Australian Special Air Services (SAS) troops in full military gear and armed with automatic weapons seized control of the Norwegian freighter, the Tampa, in order to prevent about 460 refugees, plucked from a leaking boat just four days ago, from landing on Australian territory.

President George W. Bush announced August 24 that he was nominating Air Force General Richard B. Myers to be the next chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the top military position in the United States. The administration’s selection of the former head of the US Space Command underscored its determination to build a national missile defense system and extend American military capabilities into space.

The assassination of Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine leader Abu Ali Mansour and the subsequent invasion of Palestinian controlled areas show the continued push by Israel for war. It took place within days of the announcement by Germany that it would host talks between Yasser Arafat, Chairman of the Palestinian Authority (PA) and Shimon Peres, Israel’s Foreign Minister, confirming a pattern whereby Israel’s Prime Minister Ariel Sharon responds to every peace initiative by stepping up the provocations against the Palestinians.

Woody Allen’s The Curse of the Jade Scorpion, a film noir crime caper set in 1940s Manhattan, is a film of few merits, despite the striking cinematography of Zhao Fei and remarkable period reconstruction of production designer Santo Loquato.

On August 21, the South African Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) sued the government in an attempt to force it to make available anti-HIV drugs that TAC estimates could save 35,000 new born babies a year from becoming infected by their HIV infected mothers. The organization has given the government until 12 September to respond to its legal challenge.

Britain’s Labour government has just announced funding plans for the purchase of thousands more closed circuit television (CCTV) cameras. The CCTV cameras will be installed up and down the country at 250 crime “hotspots”—commercial shopping areas, transport and hospital sites.